


Here be Monsters

by Xanthiae (Casstea)



Category: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Humour, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-02
Updated: 2012-06-02
Packaged: 2018-04-11 08:01:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4427636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Casstea/pseuds/Xanthiae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“He’s a shapeshifter,” Benji said, “he could be able to teleport.”</p><p>“Let’s try not to consider that option. I dread to think we’re on an alien space ship floating in the mists of space and time,” Clint commented dryly.</p><p>“Now whose being melodramatic,” Benji replied, “and I doubt alien space ships have concrete floors.”</p><p>“How do you know that?”</p><p>“I’ve watched Star Trek,” Benji said, as if it explained everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here be Monsters

**Author's Note:**

> First posted in 2012 on ff.net many moons ago under another title. Alas, that title is lost in time so it get's a new one.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Mission Impossible, Avengers, or the numerous references to films and games in this pieces. Written for fun and not for profit.

“There is something terribly humiliating about being held hostage by aliens,” Benji commented.

Clint Barton groaned on the floor. He hated aliens, all they ever brought were stupidly sized weapons and a desire for the next overtaking of earth. He thought this mission would give him a reprieve from that, back to the standard sized human goals of Taking Over The World With Nuclear Weapons. It had all been going smoothly as well until the ‘human’ they had been following was instead an alien with shape shifting abilities who had quickly trapped them in a magic bubble of _something_. Clint wasn’t too sure what it was made out of, but then it was never his problem when he was dealing with aliens. He simply shot the things to ensure they didn’t get back up again.

 _William Brandt_ , Clint thought to himself, _you’re supposed to be William Brandt_.

“How is that even _possible_?” Benji muttered under his breath, “there was no intel, _nothing_ to suggest extra-terrestrial activity.”

Clint almost snorted in amusement. Since Loki’s attempted, and very public, invasion of the Earth nigh on two years ago, the Government agencies had been forced to share intel on the new threat from outer space by the respective Heads of State. However, due to their inherent nature, the Government Agencies in question didn’t like sharing _all_ of their intel with one another, which was why Clint Barton of SHIELD was currently on an IMF mission undercover as William Brandt.

 “He was a shape-shifter,” Clint suggested.

“Yes but there would be records,” Benji continued, “there would be trails, or the _lack_ of trails that would say otherwise.”

“Well I’m at a loss,” Clint sighed, pushing himself into an upright position. The world spun a bit, no doubt from the head injury he had sustained when they were being put into their little magic cell.

“You think the others are all right Brandt?” Benji asked Clint.

“Would Ethan let it be otherwise?” Clint replied, “no doubt he’s already formulating some escape plan as we speak.”

“And why aren’t we?” Benji questioned.

“Not sure about you,” Clint replied, “but my training doesn’t extend to escaping from opaque magical bubbles.”

 _And that’s true_ , Clint thought to himself. Even his extended time in the Avengers initiative couldn’t prepare him for escaping magical bubble cells.

“I suppose we could find a power source,” Benji mused, looking around them to see if there was a single source of the cell they could take out. However, it was in vain, the curved walls of the dome which encased them was one never ending haze of blue and purple lines, too thick to be able to see through.

“There could be anything on the other side of that wall,” Benji said, “man eating tigres, fifty feet drops, pools of lava-”

“Benji,” Clint said.

“Yes?”

“Shut it.”

“What? I talk when I get nervous,” Benji shot back.

Clint rested his head back against the cold concrete floor.

“I doubt we’ve even left the building,” Clint commented, “we were out for what, a few minutes?”

“He’s a shapeshifter,” Benji said, “he could be able to teleport.”

“Let’s try not to consider that option. I dread to think we’re on an alien space ship floating in the mists of space and time,” Clint commented dryly.

“Now whose being melodramatic,” Benji replied, “and I doubt alien space ships have concrete floors.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve watched Star Trek,” Benji said, as if it explained everything.

“I was more of a Star Wars fan myself,” Clint replied, thinking back to the many movie nights that were held at the Avenger’s mansion. There had been a huge argument between himself and Tony as to whether Han shot first (Clint refused to believe otherwise), which had been followed by Loki’s announcement that it would not be too hard to build a lightsaber. Tony had bet him fifty thousand dollars that he could do it before Loki, which had meant neither had been seen for nearly two weeks afterwards, until Tony turned up with an impressive looking, fully functional lightsaber. Loki had simply conjured an image out of thin air.

Clint smirked at the memory. It was odd having Loki as an ally. Well, _ally_ wasn’t really the right word, Loki was better described as an _extremely powerful individual who isn’t taking over the world at that very moment_. However, after it had been found that Loki had been subjugated to the same mind control that he had put Clint under, the demigod was take off their ‘kill on sight’ list. Not that it redeemed the demigod in Clint’s eyes, it had taken the better part of a year for Clint not to shoot him on sight. However, a trip to Asgard on Loki’s part involving some sort of time loop which had resulted in his punishment lasting for years whilst only days had passed (Tony and Bruce had tried to explain it but Clint hadn’t really followed), and the fact that Clint owed his life to the God of Mischief had resulted in an uneasy truce between the two men. Clint still hadn’t forgiven the demigod for subjecting him to mind control, and Loki still hadn’t forgiven Clint for the numerous occasions the archer had tried to put an arrow through his eyesocket.

His thoughts were broken when a low humming noise filled the dome. Clint shot a questioning look towards Benji who simply shrugged his shoulders. Apparently the techie didn’t know what was going on either.

The edge of the dome warped slightly, as the green and blue lines that made up the cell split to reveal two burley looking guards decked out in an unknown uniform. Clint squinted past them, trying to gauge the environment outside their cell. From what he could see it was made up of steel and concrete that was commonly found on earth.

 _So that puts a stop to the alien spaceship theory,_ Clint mused to himself as the guards came in closer and grabbed his writsts tightly, hauling him off the floor and into a standing position. The other guard did the same with Benji who shot a very British glare towards the guard.

“You’re going to take us to Mordor then?” Clint asked the guard with a grin. In return, the guard pulled Clint’s arms violently backwards and he would have been pulled off balance if it hadn’t been for the years of training he had accumulated as a child performer in a circus.

“Or maybe Isengard?” Benji questioned to his guard, “the weather really is lovely at that time of year.”

Benji’s guard looked equally disgruntled at the comment. Apparently neither of them had watched Lord of the Rings.

 _At least we have some sort of a plan_ , Clint mused. Referencing Lord of the Rings was a code which meant ‘ _escape plans_. Referencing the weather meant they would do it half way towards whatever destination the guards were indenting to take them.

Clint offered no resistance as the guard jabbed his gun into his spine, forcing him to walk forwards and out of the cell. Once outside, his quick eyes scanned the surroundings for any clue as to where he could be. He spotted a number of other guards patrolling a higher walkway, carrying weapons very much like the one Clint currently had pressing into his back. They weren’t wearing any masks, the weapons looked man made, and as far as he could tell there were no tell-tale signs in changes of gravity to say that they were on another planet.

 _So Earth then_ , Clint thought, as the guard directed him out of what could be a hanger and into a smaller corridor. Here the theme of metal and concrete continued, the walls looking more functional than decorative. Pipes ran across the top of the ceiling, some disappearing off into the wall, others letting off steam that clung to the edges of the walls.

A quick look towards Benji’s guard told Clint that these two men were relatively unprepared for dealing with prisoners. Firstly, they thought that holding a gun to someone’s head would enact all cooperation, and secondly their radios and uniform looked newly made and hung far too stiffly to be regularly used.

That either meant the person who was holding them hostage didn’t count them as a threat, or that there was something else the person had which required proper guards.

They turned another corner, leading down another, almost identical corridor. The gun jabbed harder into his back as Clint dropped his pace slightly.

 _Better now than never_ , he thought.

In one fluid motion, Clint dropped into a crouch whilst swiping out the other in a wide arch and taking the guard’s feet from under him. He might not be as good at hand to hand combat as Natasha, but on an unsuspecting and untrained guard he might as well have no training at all.

As the guard fell, Clint leapt out of his crouch, pushing his shoulder into the guard’s stomach and driving the wind out of the man. The sound of blows next to him was Benji successfully incapacitating his guard.

A few more seconds and a snapped neck later, both guards had been dealt with.

“That was too easy,” Clint muttered as he snapped the radio from the guard’s body and onto his belt, before picking up the rifle and checking the number of rounds.

“Just take credit for being a ninja,” Benji said as he put the earpiece into his ear, “what’s next on the agenda.”

“Find a control room, find Ethan and Jane, get out with as little commotion as possible,” Clint said methodically, flicking the safety off the gun. Those two guards must have been very new, if they hadn’t even taken the safety off their weapons.

It didn’t take long to change into the guards’ uniform, but Clint had to leave the military-issue boots as they were too small for his feet.

“Right then,” Benji said, pulling his cap down over his eyes, “convincing enough?”

“Convincing until they find these two,” Clint replied, pointing to the two bodies. There were no convenient storage cupboards to put them in, so Benji and Clint had improvised by arranging them to make them look like they were sitting down as opposed to lying down dead.

They set off down the corridor at a light jog, pausing at each intersection to ensure that they were not noticed by any other guards. The whole complex was one giant maze, and after a few near misses which had driven Clint and Benji down a narrow corridor filled with broken looking pipes, they paused to recollect themselves.

It was only his reactions which caught the flicker of movement as someone dropped from the ceiling. In a blur he went from standing up to laid out on the floor with his own gun pointing towards Benji before the man could even react.

As his vision cleared, he noticed the familiar shape of the face that was staring at him in equal shock.

“What are you doing here?” Clint asked.

“Could say the same thing to you,” Natasha replied, standing up in one quick movement, and offering a hand to pull Clint up. She still had his gun trained on Benji.

“Diplomat turns out to be a shape shifting alien,” Clint commented, “you?”

“Someone kidnapped Loki and Thor,” Natasha replied blankly.

Clint raised an eyebrow

“How did they manage that?” he asked.

“Chloroform and shape shifting abilities,” Natasha said, “probably your guy. There aren’t many shape shifters around.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Benji said, “Brandt who is she?” He waved in the direction of Natasha, not taking his eyes of the gun pointed at his forehead.

“He’s safe,” Clint said to Natasha, who paused for a few seconds before lowering the rifle, swinging around in her hand to pass it back to Clint.

“Brandt?” Benji questioned, his voice still sounding slightly wary of Natasha. Clint smirked, Natasha was not even trying to hide the threatening aura which surrounded her.

“Old friend,” Clint said shortly, “didn’t expect to meet her.”

“Well that’s lovely,” Benji said, “but it doesn’t help the fact that Ethan and Jane are probably locked up somewhere-”

“They’re safe,” Natasha said.

“What?” Benji questioned.

“They are currently being debriefed by Fury,” Natasha said, glancing towards Clint, “I think Fury’s trying to take them off the IMF.”

“And how’s he going to manage that?” Clint questioned.

Natasha cocked her head to one side.

“He says that you should not underestimate his abilities to get the job done,” Natasha repeated from the earpiece that was feeding her information.

“And you can tell him to keep aliens away from my non-alien related jobs,” Clint muttered back.

“Will someone please explain what is going on?” Benji asked.

“You’re currently being transferred from the IMF to another government department,” Natasha stated.

Clint snorted.

“I don’t think Fury considers it a ‘government department’,” he commented.

“You can’t just do that,” Benji protested in an exasperated whisper, glancing out into the corridor behind Clint to check no one had found them, “I’m not some bartering chip.”

“You must be new,” Natasha said dryly.

“And who is this ‘other government department’ anyway?” Benji questioned, before glancing towards Clint and saying; “and Brandt you still have nott explained how you know her.”

“Can we leave this until later,” Natasha said sharply, turning to Benji, “you’ll be debriefed later. For now, it is suffice to say that you are involved in a rescue operation. And the name is Black Widow.”

“That had better be a code name,” Benji muttered, “or your parents were trying to be new and inventive.”

“Overview?” Clint asked Natasha.

“Loki and Thor are hostage in unknown areas,” Natasha said, “we need to get to the control room and destabilise the override to get them out. Rodgers is on his way to Thor, Bruce is on standby if a distraction is needed and Tony’s currently hacking his way into the comms with Iron Man on standby as well if things get bad.”

“And whose idea was it for you to rescue Loki?” Clint questioned, his mouth quirking into a grin.

“I could do the controls,” Natasha replied, “believe me, saving Loki is not voluntary.”

“Although we could hold it over him,” Clint mused, “really dig it into him that he was saved by two ‘mere mortals’ who would much prefer to break his neck and put an arrow through his eyesocket.”

“Oh I think you’re being a little harsh,” Natasha replied dryly, “I would only break his leg. I wouldn’t want to deal with Thor.”

“You have a point there,” Clint commented.

“Isn’t Loki the guy who tried to enslave earth a few years ago?” Benji said, his face crumpled in thoughtfulness.

“Yep,” Clint replied.

“And we have to rescue him?” Benji said.

“That is correct,” Natasha said.

“There was a reason I hated aliens,” Benji muttered under his breath as the three of them moved out.

xxXxx

“This isn’t going to work,” Benji muttered under his breath.

“A little bit of faith,” Brandt replied quietly.

They were walking towards the control room, or at least what they _thought_ was the control room. It looked rather insignificant, with only two guards flanking the plain iron doorway. The metal floor beneath them shook with each footstep.

Benji glanced towards Brandt. He held himself differently as if he was more like a coiled spring ready to pounce instead of his usual gait. He seemed much more dangerous like this, whereas normal Brandt was like a one man fighting team, _this_ Brandt looked like he could take on an entire army single handed.

Benji wasn’t going to lie, he was a little terrified.

“Passes,” one of the guards on the door barked.

“Oh come _on_ ,” Brandt said, his accent changing slightly, pulling out the vowels in the words, “you know us, just let us through.”

“ _Passes_ ,” the other guard emphasised, his hand reaching towards his gun holster.

Before the man could reach his gun, however, a knife suddenly embedded itself in his shoulder. A second _thunk_ indicated that the other guard had been dealt with in the same way.

“It’ll knock them out cold for a few hours,” Brandt explained, reaching down to pick the now unconscious guard’s pass out of his pocket and swipe it through the machine.

 _Bing_.

The light changed from red to green, and the door slid open.

“They have bad security,” Benji commented. A single key card to protect their command room; it was almost unheard of.

“This place was constructed in a rush,” the woman who had called herself Black Widow commented beside him, “behind all this metal panelling it’s mostly scaffold.”

“But why?” Benji asked.

“Temporary holding facility,” Black Widow replied, “they captured you because the man you were tracking was a contractor for this.”

“I thought he was a shapeshifter?” Benji questioned.

“He could be both,” Brandt commented, as they slid through into the control room. The doors closed silently behind them, locking them in.

In the centre of the room was Loki, lying on the floor, wires sinking into his entire body. Green energy pulsed around the wires and into the computers that were set up in a semi-circle around the demi god.

“Stark says they’re trying to syphon off his magic,” Black Widow said, hand to her ear.

“Benji,” Brandt commanded, “see if you can hack into their system.”

“And take this,” Black Widow said, throwing Benji a small phone with the words _Stark Industries_ engraved across the back, “Stark wants to upload a virus which will mine their data.”

Benji had been standing in shock at the sight in front of him, but Brandt’s words kicked him into action. He dove towards the computers, the familiar feel of the keyboard centring his stunned mind.

“And what are you two going to do?” Benji questioned, as he broke through the first line of security and begun to hack into the second layer, pulling up programs that would search for back doors into the system.

“Just hack it,” Brandt replied, as he and Black Widow begun to scout the area. Benji made a face, before continuing to hack into the system. A few minutes later, he had made it into the mainframe, eyes skimming over the data in front of him.

“Stark says to answer the phone,” Black Widow said from where she was crouched down at Loki’s side, a hint of amusement across her face.

“Right,” Benji said, looking at the phone he had been handed and hitting the _‘accept’_ button on the call before putting it to his ear.

“You must be Benji,” a jovial American voice said from the other end of the phone. Benji could hear a scuffle at the other end.

“Oh he’s fine Hunt, calm down,” the voice said.

“Excuse me?” Benji asked.

“Your colleague is rather concerned about your health,” the American continued, “anyway, there’s a spare data card in the back of this phone. Put it in the side of the computer and volia! You have your information.”

Benji rolled his eyes. He knew who Tony Stark was, and also knew the man’s reputation. On any other occasion, he might have been stunned to even talk to the man who had totally revolutionised the way technology was thought about, but he couldn’t even summon the energy to be surprised with the new turns this operation was taking.

He still believed that being held hostage by aliens was a bad idea.

Flipping the phone over, he pulled out the spare data card from the back of the phone and slid it into the computer, before hitting _enter_ with a very final keystroke.

Then an alarm went off.

“Stark!” Brandt exclaimed. Benji swore, dropping the phone as he tried to work out what was going on. The virus that Stark had tried to plant inside the system to mine the information was being attacked by the system _itself_. It was like the system was almost sentient-

“Oh dear,” Benji commented.

“What?” Brandt asked shortly.

“We need to get out of here,” Benji said, “like _now_.”

Black Widow muttered a stream of words in Russian that was so fast Benji could only work out that they were curses of the highest severity.

“The entire building,” Benji said, “it’s a mainframe. _That’s_ why it was so easy to get in here, they don’t need to protect the control server, the building _is_ the control server.”

“And?” Brandt said.

“Your friend Stark just planted a virus,” Benji said, “to attack the system. It works by mining through the data and copying sections of code out onto another hard drive. Yet the system’s recognised it’s a virus and it’s using its core programming to attack it.”

“It’s a computer,” Black Widow commented, “not an army.”

“No,” Benji said, pointing towards one of the monitors, “but it’s _sending_ the army.”

“How is that even possible?” Black Widow said, leaping up from her crouch and round to look at the monitors.

“I have no idea what technology it is,” Benji said, looking at the monitors, “but it seems to be equipped with some sort of printer that is making _those_.”

“A printer?” Black Widow asked.

“You’re the one who deals with aliens,” Benji said, holding his hands up, “there seems to be some sort of alien production system that is currently spewing out creatures akin to something you would seem in a game called _Walking Dead 3_.”

“What?” Brandt questioned, “zombies?”

“Not quite,” Benji said, “I mean, it isn’t caused by a virus or overall event. But my bet is the computer’s gone and sourced a few images from the internet and decided that _these_ things are the best way to stop the virus.”

“You mean us,” Brandt said.

“Yep,” Benji commented.

“Stark says Rodgers has Thor,” Black Widow stated, holding her hand on her earpiece to get a better reception, “he’s in a bad way.”

“Well I’m not waiting for the program to finish to disconnect this bastard,” Brandt said seriously, crouching down and quickly disconnecting the wires that were attached to Loki. Sparks flew everywhere and Brandt swore violently as a wire cut his forearm. Loki twitched before letting out an ear-splitting scream.

“And he screams like a girl,” Brandt commented.

“Guys we have fifteen minutes before the Z-day.”

“Z-day?” Black Widow questioned.

“Oh please,” Benji commented, “it’s not every day you get attacked by Zombies.”

“Finally all that time playing _Timesplitters_ _2_ can pay off,” Brandt commented.

A violent coughing from the floor brought their attention back to Loki.

“Come along your Godliness,” Brandt said sarcastically, “we need to get out of here.”

“If I was not so weak Barton,” Loki replied, “You would pay for that comment.”

“If I had my bow,” Brandt replied, “you would have an arrow through the eyesocket. Now unless you want to get eaten alive, _move_.”

“Actually,” Benji started, “not all zombies eat people alive-”

“Shut it Benji,” Brandt shot back, “this isn’t a time to discuss the intricacies of comic book lore.”

“Five minutes,” Black Widow said, glancing down at the monitor. The ‘zombies’ were starting to shuffle their way down the corridor, looking like they were performing a very uncoordinated Thriller dance.

“The walls,” Black Widow said, “Stark says that we can get out through the walls. He managed to pull the schematics of the building down before the computer attacked it.”

“Right then,” Brandt said, “Benji, you help Loki, Tasha and I will cover the retreat.”

 _So her name_ isn’t _Black Widow then_ , Benji muse silently. Loki glared at Brandt’s order, but in his weakened state, he couldn’t protest much. However, Benji wasn’t comforted much, even though the demi god could barely stand, Benji had no doubts the man dressed in black and green leather could dispatch him from this earth with so much as a hand gesture.

“Barton,” Loki said, as he staggered upright. Brandt turned around as Loki mad a gesture to throw something at the man. A bow appeared out of nowhere, accompanied by a quiver of arrows.

Brandt took one look at the weapons, before glancing back up at the demi god again.

“Thanks,” he said bluntly, swinging the quiver of arrows across his back with a practised movement, whilst throwing his rifle towards Tasha, who caught it deftly.

“Which wall did Stark say?” Benji asked.

“Panel third from the left at the back,” she replied, as she and Brandt pushed numerous chairs and other obstacles in front of the doorway. It wouldn’t hold for long, but it could slow the ‘zombies’ down. Benji glanced towards Loki, who gave him a look that said ‘I do not need any help’, before dashing towards the panel, grabbing a chair along the way to use as a battering ram.

The sounds from outside the door could have been cut from any zombie movie, Benji thought. All they needed was the Wilhelm scream and they could sell it as a best-selling movie.

Benji slammed the chair into the panel repeatedly, slowly making it dislodge. Behind him, the door burst open, and Tasha and Brandt began to fire on the creatures. A quick glance told Benji that there was more to Brandt that he had originally known, as he was drawing and firing his arrows with deadly aim and accuracy.

Finally, the panel fell free, tumbling down into the structure that held up the building. Benji could just see scaffold poles that held up the structure lacing the wall together.

“This might help,” Loki said, as a ball of green pulsating light drifting past Benji and into the gap between the walls. It was only about six feet in diameter, filled with the complex construction of scaffold poles. This building had been made in a hurry.

“Quickly please!” Brandt said. The sound of guns echoed through the room. The door was bottlenecking the creatures, giving them more time.

“Right then,” Benji said to himself, glancing down at the drop that hung below, “only live once.”

He swung out onto the scaffold poles, grabbing on tightly to the metal to get his balance. He shuffled along the rung to allow Loki to get out. Even as drained as he was, the demi god managed to make it look easy, although that could be from the fact his tall frame made reaching the scaffold easier.

“We need to go up,” Benji said, reaching up to the rung above him.

“Up?” Loki asked.

“Zombies can’t climb,” Benji said, “if we go down they’ll fall on us, and I don’t really want to test the theory that their bite doesn’t mean you turn into one of them.”

Benji swung further into the scaffold web, wanting to put some distance between the thin iron sheets which would soon be the only defence between them and the creatures, before slowly making his way upwards. Loki followed suit, his face a mask of concentration as the climbed higher.

Glancing down for a mere second, Benji spotted Brandt and Tasha dive through the small hole and out onto the scaffold pole. Brandt and Tasha both seemed at home on the fragile construction, and soon they were at the same level as Loki and Benji.

“Tell me Brandt,” Benji asked, “since when were you a spider monkey?”

“Bad parentage,” Tasha commented, “it would explain the face.”

“That burns,” Brandt replied with a wicked grin.

The echoes of the creatures wails filled the space, forcing them all to move faster.

“Rodgers is nearly out,” Tashsa said, “apparently we need to keep the zombies concentrated on us.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard,” Brandt said, grabbing one of the rifles he had slung around his shoulder along with his bow, and shot in the general direction of the creatures who were looking up at them from the hole in the wall.

“Now they’re pissed,” Brandt said, as he continued to hang with one hand, grinning like a loon.

“Show off,” Tasha commented.

“In the presence of His Godliness Himself,” Brandt replied, “I am honoured to have that title.”

“I can still kill you Barton,” Loki replied.

“Do that and I’ll put an arrow through both of your eyesockets,” Clint replied, slinging the rifle over his back, knocking it against his quiver, and heaving himself further up the scaffold.

xxXxx

It turned out that the ‘zombies’ could climb.

“Rodgers and Thor are out,” Tasha said, turning to Clint, who fired some more shots down towards the zombies. Whilst they _could_ climb, their coordination was not very good and their progress was slow.

“So they’re just following us,” Clint said, “good. Tell Stark to call in a chopper to the roof.”

“He has done,” Tasha replied, “they’re circling now.”

“It’s still not moving,” Benji said from above them, as he continued to hammer at the roof panel which was stopping them from getting outside. Next to them, the thin walls of metal that blocked off the metal scaffold from the rest of the building shook, and the muted moans of the ‘zombies’ could be heard through them.

“Loki just blast it,” Clint ordered.

“I’ve already told you Barton,” Loki replied, “brute force could bring the entire building down on us. Whilst you might not have any qualms of self-sacrifice, _I_ do not want to be crushed to death.”

“And if you don’t,” Clint replied, “we’ll be mauled to death by some computer generated zombies.”

“Stark says that damaging the building could slow them down,” Tasha said, relaying what Tony was saying in her ear, “if the ‘zombies’ are computer generated, they’re likely to be controlled by the computer as some sort of hive mind collective. Damage the building, you damage the computer, and you could break their programming.”

“And so instead of an ordered attack they go batshit crazy?” Clint asked.

“It would give us more time,” Tasha explained.

The three of them looked towards Loki, who pursed his lips in exasperation.

“This might not even work,” Loki explained, “I am far too weak for the spell to properly formulate.”

“Better than nothing,” Clint said, shooting a few more zombies below and causing them to tumble downwards into seemingly bottomless abyss below them, “or I’ll shoot it in a minute.”

Loki didn’t reply. Instead, he looped one arm around the scaffold pole he was resting on, and raised the other one up towards the ceiling above them. There were a few dents in the metal where Benji had been trying to kick it out of place, but even then it hadn’t moved.

“Cover your eyes mortals,” Loki instructed, as a green glow surrounded his hand. Clint simply looked downwards, shooting another zombie clean between the eyes. It was annoying that he couldn’t use his arrows in the cramped space, there simply was not enough room to get a proper draw on his bow. Clint found rifles far less accurate.

Suddenly the entire expanse was filled with a green light, highlighting the hundreds of creatures which were looking back up at them. Clint quickly recorded where they were, and begun shooting at the now clearer targets, smiling as he heard the _thump_ of the creatures falling off the scaffold and into the abyss below.

 _Boom_.

The entire scaffold shook violently, as sunlight streamed in from above. Clint blinked against the light, glancing upwards to where a smug looking Loki hung from the scaffold, and a slightly scared looking Benji was clinging to the scaffold tightly.

“Call them in,” Tasha said, as she too fired her rifle down the creatures, before pulling herself higher up the scaffold. The sound of a chopper filled the area, as the thrumming beat of the blades echoed down the cavern, buffering all four of them as they climbed higher, scrambling onto the roof so they could be picked up.

It was only then that Clint could see what the building was. It seemed to be built like an aircraft hanger, but from the distance from the roof to the ground Clint could guess they were nearly six stories up.

A huge crash from the hole they had just scrambled out of caught their attention. Clint glanced downwards to see that the zombies from the room on either side of the scaffold had managed to take advantage of the structural damage from Loki’s blast and pushed out the interior metal walls so they could climb onto the scaffold themselves.

The chopper was hovering lower over the roof by this point, and Loki and Benji were beginning to scramble into it.

“Tasha,” Clint said, throwing her the rifle off his bow arm. She caught it deftly, and begun to fire both weapons towards the heads of the ‘zombies’ which were poking their heads above the hole. Clint quickly unstrung his bow and cleanly shot one of his trick arrows through the zombie’s head. It fell backwards into the scaffold, and Clint waited for five heartbeats before he pressed the button on his bow that would make it explode.

 _Boom_.

The explosion shuddered the entire building, and suddenly the zombies fell downwards as the scaffold they were trying to climb on disappeared beneath them. Taking advantage of the situation, Clint and Tasha dashed towards the chopper as it begun to rise up from the roof. They both made it in with a clean jump, scrambling across the floor before looking back at the building they had left behind.

“Starks going to drop some explosive down,” Tasha said, looking towards Clint’s face which was covered in sweat and soot from the explosion, “make the shot.”

Clint’s mouth quirked upwards at Tasha’s comment, she didn’t doubt for one moment that he couldn’t make such a shot. He indicated for the pilot to swing the chopper around, and Benji swore violently as the chopper banked steeply around.

“There’s Stark,” Tasha noted, as the red and gold Iron Man suit shot out from the sun, carrying what looked like a small package. However, Clint had no doubt that it could pack a punch even for the package’s small size, after all Bruce and Tony had been working on a new method of combining plastic explosives with some sort of matter interaction system. Clint didn’t exactly follow the science behind it, but he didn’t really need to.

Stark dove in low, dropping the package neatly into the hole, before flying straight upwards again to get out of the way of the chopper as it flew in. Clint clicked the button to change his trick arrows, wanting the one that gave a delayed detonation.

“This is all very reminiscent of Star Wars,” Benji commented, “dropping bombs into a shaft leading down to the centre of the enemy base, albeit with more zombies.”

Clint rolled his eyes as he strung his bow in one smooth movement, bringing the arrow close to his cheek as he took aim.

“I can’t get the angle,” he muttered, putting the arrow back into the quiver again and jumping towards the rope that laid coiled by the door for use if the occupants of the chopper had to fast-rope their way towards the ground. In one swift movement, he threw the rope out of the doorway, watching it uncoil until it hung in an almost vertical line. Luckily, the chopper pilots were used to Clint’s antics, levelled out the chopper so it hovered almost directly above the hole.

Clint shouldered his bow, even as Benji began to protest when he realised what Clint was going to do. Out of the corner of his eye, Clint saw Loki smirk appreciatively at the insanity of his plan.

Tasha simply lent out the door and begun to give some covering fire for the few zombies that had somehow managed to pull themselves up to the level of the roof.

Clint swung out onto the rope with practised ease, his calloused hands grabbing the rope as he legs swung around it. He wouldn’t be able to fast rope properly, due to the fact that his hands would be shredded by rope burn in mere seconds, but he lowered himself quickly hand-over hand until he got the requisite height he needed. Below he could hear the zombies calling out.

Only a few seconds had passed.

 _Haven’t done this in a while_ , Clint thought, as he pulled the rope around his legs to lock him in place, and took a deep breath to steady himself, before shutting his eyes and letting go.

The rope bit into his legs, but Clint was too focussed on the shot he needed to make to focus on the pain. He swiftly drew the arrow from his quiver, and strung it before spotting where the explosive that Tony had dropped down had nestled.

“Bombs away,” he muttered, releasing the arrow and watching it fly cleanly into the package. As soon as he had released the arrow, the chopper begun to rise, and Clint grabbed onto the rope as the rope begun to bend at a slight angle due to the chopper’s movement.

 _Boom_.

The explosion’s noise was dampened slightly due to the fact it had started in the centre of the building. Clint watched as it began to slowly collapsed on itself, the metal buckling under the heat as it folded inwards. The chopper begun to slow slightly, enough for Clint to turn himself around, another trick he had learnt from his time in the circus, and climb back up the rope again and into the chopper. Benji had a stunned look on his face, as if he didn’t expect Clint to have survived.

 _Well_ , Clint considered to himself, _he does only think I’m an IMF agent_. _Only Ethan was known for such stupid stunts_.

Tasha pressed the button which wheeled the rope into onto the spool that sat inside the chopper, before patting Clint on the shoulder in a gesture which said _job well done_.

“So now we’re out of reach of any computer generated zombies,” Benji said, breaking the silence as Tasha and Clint strapped themselves into the seats, “Brandt why is everyone calling you Barton? And when did you know how to shoot arrows? And would you like to explain what is going on?”

Clint glanced over at Benji’s exasperated face.

“I’m not William Brandt,” Clint started, and Benji gave him a _‘well I really didn’t guess that_ ’ look.

“My name is Clint Barton,” Clint continued, “I work for an agency called S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“Which I’ve apparently been transferred to,” Benji commented.

“Think of it as an upgrade,” Tasha told Benji, giving him her sweetest smile, “whatever tech the IMF had doesn’t even touch was S.H.I.E.L.D can give you.”

“Twenty five minutes until we reach the Helicarrier,” the pilot called through to the back of the chopper.

“Fury will fill you in later,” Clint said, resting his head against the chopper and shutting his eyes, “now I don’t know about you, but I need some beauty sleep.”


End file.
